With Vinyl Scratch and Matt Miller secure in the ship, the Saints had earned themselves a real victory over Zinyak. The technical expertise of the two would come in handy for the battles to come.

Kinzie still held a grudge over Matt for getting her kicked from the FBI and that matter wasn’t going to be resolved anytime soon. Playa managed to convince them to tolerate each other enough to not go at each other’s throats until the Zin were dealt with.

Pinkamena had a talk with Vinyl about what had happened while she was trapped in a simulated Canterlot. The DJ was sad to hear that Earth was blown up by Zinyak, especially since that meant that there were billions of people who would never hear her at the turntable now.

After that talk, Vinyl then had a chat with Matt to learn a few things about him, mainly his love of cyberpunk fashion though. Their conversation also awakened in her a small interest in the Nyte Blayde universe.

“Hey Pinkamena, can I talk to you for a moment?” Kinzie requested.

Pinkamena walked over to Kinzie to see what she wanted.

“I’ve been looking over some simulation data and located what I think is a prison but the configuration is unlike anything I could imagine would torment our friends.”

Pinkamena stared at the moving drawing on the screen. It looked like a large crater with a small house on the lip of it. It looked like a quarry. Pinkamena thought for whom the prison would be for but didn’t believe that a quarry would relate to any of her friends or any of the humans.

The only ones who could relate a quarry to their lives would be herself, Pinkie and…

The thought that appeared in her head was one that she didn’t want to admit was a possibility. However, the more she thought about it, the more the scenario felt likely and the increasing likelihood also elevated Pinkamena’s anger.

“He didn’t…” Pinkamena growled.

Kinzie noticed the madmare’s rising anger and began to feel concerned for her own safety by being near her. “Mena…?”

“He better not have foalnapped my sisters! He’s already in more trouble than any of my previous victims. If he foalnapped Marble, Limestone and Maud, I will make his suffering eternal!”

Kinzie decided to let the madmare fume for a while and head back to the control room to prepare for their next operation.

It was time to get back to work. Kinzie wanted to focus on getting the numerous stores in the simulation under Saints control and she already had her first list of stores for Pinkamena to hack into. She intended to open even more gateways into the simulation to allow more ease of travel over the course of her numerous lists that she had ready.

Keith David and CID each had one last list of tasks that he and she needed completed. It was only three objectives each this time so neither would take long.

With Matt back at the computer, he was ready to get into the action by studying how the simulation functioned.

Since Kinzie’s and Matt’s tasks involved at least one store hack, Pinkamena agreed to take on those tasks while Playa handed Keith’s and CID’s tasks.

Both Playa and Pinkamena knew that they would need more help if their friends were going to keep piling more work on them.

Pinkamena had time to cool off after her latest revelation but there was still a boiling rage that she was keeping in check for the time being. Pinkie was doing her best to keep her sister calm.

As the duo entered the simulation however, Pinkamena’s Pinkie Sense went off with the sensations that told her an ambush was coming. She warned Playa to be on guard for what was coming.

Inside the simulation, the two were almost immediately ambushed by a Warden. The coloring on this beast was orange instead of the red, purple or green that they had encountered before.

To demonstrate its new power, the Warden slammed the ground and upended the land around it. Playa and Pinkamena jumped upward to avoid the shockwave.

With the element of surprise now lost, the Warden stood no chance against the superpowered duo as they used the usual strategy of Playa Freeze Blasting the shield and Pinkamena tearing up its body with her Vorpal Blade. The two entered the Warden’s body and finished it, granting a new power to the two of them.

Pinkamena felt as if her natural Earth Pony strength was amplified. With a devious smirk on her face, she stomped the ground near Playa and put him off balance to where he fell on his butt. The madmare giggled.

“Yeah, very funny Mena, I’ll get you back for that one someday,” Playa responded.

Pinkamena decided to take a look at the sky and noticed another change to the color. It had turned from orange to red.

“Hey Playa, check it out.” She pointed at the sky. “Red like his rage.”

Playa chuckled, “Yep, he must be mad.”

“Before you two get on with the tasks, I think you should get some practice in with your powers. There’s a fight club event going on that involves superpowers. You two should check it out,” Kinzie recommended.

Going by Kinzie’s instructions, Pinkamena headed to the stage where the event was taking place while Playa let her handle the game herself and set off to complete his tasks. The madmare was not surprised to hear Zach’s voice as he hosted Super Power Fight Club.

For the rules, nobody could use weapons and powers were freely used by all contenders.

Once the fight began, the few enemies around jumped around the large arena floor at inhuman speeds. The first wave was composed of people dressed as Vice Kings. The moment one landed in front of the madmare, she grabbed him by the ankles and used him like a club as she jumped toward the other opponents and batted them through the arena wall. Once only her club remained, she slammed him into the floor before she stomped so hard on him that he splattered.

The second wave was a few Morningstar on fire. Combining her Stomp and Freeze Blast, she punched a Morningstar with such force that a wave of frost flew outward from her location and froze the other opponents. Pinkamena stomped hard on the floor and shattered her remaining opponents.

The final wave was Josh Birk in his Nyte Blayde outfit and a couple of other opponents. Once Nyte Blayde appeared in the arena though, he couldn’t react fast enough as a spinning torpedo of pink crashed into him and slammed him into a wall. Before he could recover from the crash he suddenly felt a heavy pressure slam his chest and pierce his armor and flesh. He looked down to see a pink hoof buried in his chest where his heart would be if he were a living being instead of a digital one.

Pinkamena removed her hoof as Zach announced the end of the episode of Super Power Fight Club.

With that done, Pinkie took over and started hacking stores. She hacked a Friendly Fire in Bridgeport, a Rim Jobs on Arapice Island, a Rusty’s Needle and a Let’s Pretend in New Baranec, and a Planet Zin in Salander.

Ending Kinzie’s latest list was another defense of an area while Kinzie uploaded her latest virus.

With that list done, Pinkamena moved on to Matt’s list which was a lot shorter. She dispatched the Zin patrol in Salander by stomping the ground to launch the aliens upward before she finished the helpless troops by launching herself into the air and bounced from Zin to Zin while decapitating each one before they could hit the ground.

The list was completed by Pinkie as she hacked a Friendly Fire in The Grove and hijacked another chrome car and dropped it off at its designated location.

Playa later reported the completion of his tasks in the forms of two Zin patrols, a virus injection, a tower climb where he made sure he was thorough in his cluster collection this time, using his Super Sprint to stabilize a rift, and tearing up Rosen Oaks with his Telekinesis powers.

With the large number of objectives complete, the two returned to the ship.

For their troubles, they were rewarded with a couple of suits, a gateway in Carver Island and a program that would help them locate collectibles.

Johnny Gat was going stir crazy with having nothing to do. The boredom had made him irritable and that irritation would be infectious if he didn’t have an outlet soon.

Playa had an idea on how to do that and asked for Matt’s help to get it done. He and Johnny went into the simulation where Matt loaded up a simulated episode of Professor Genki’s Super Ethical Reality Climax where the two of them went on a killing spree of shooting up mascots.without Playa using his powers.

The second round of the show was an Apocalypse Genki round in a jungle scene. Playa had Matt return his powers after the former Decker turned him into a toilet as a prank.

The third round was intense with superpowered mascots attacking them so Johnny had Matt load him up with powers too. With both Saints powered up, they crushed the mascots on their way to the final round.

Matt had a surprise in store for Johnny in the form of an unfinished fight that was interrupted by Zinyak before. A simulated and powered Phillipe Loren awaited the duo.

Loren stood no chance in a two on one match on equal footing and the two left the simulation satisfied.

Meanwhile, while Playa and Johnny were having their fun, Pinkamena decided to rescue another Saint from their nightmarish prison. However, while she thought she would be going in alone, Vinyl stood between her and the devices into the simulation.

“Hey Mena, I want to handle Shaundi’s rescue so you can save Treehugger.”

Pinkamena raised an eyebrow, “Why go out of your way to save Shaundi of all people?”

“Well, it’s not actually Shaundi that I’m personally invested in to be honest. I just have this feeling that there’s something in her simulation that’s giving me this competitive itch for some reason. This feeling usually only shows whenever some hotshot DJ shows up that needs to be put in his place.”

Pinkamena thought for a minute about what the relation between Shaundi’s prison and Vinyl’s sudden fit of competitiveness would be. After that minute, she realized that there was one figure from Shaundi’s past who fit the bill and quickly figured what was going to happen. She couldn’t suppress her giggles as she imagined the impending scenario.

“Alright, you can handle Shaundi’s rescue but don’t underestimate the other dangers in there. Shaundi has had some troubles in her past and that guy is just one of them.”

“I won’t let you down, Mena.”

Pinkamena nodded. “Good, now I can focus my efforts on getting our favorite arsonist out of jail.”

Once the two were inside the simulation, they headed to The Broken Shillelagh with CID with the cyphers to Shaundi’s and Treehugger’s prisons. CID opened the gateway into Shaundi’s simulation and Vinyl walked inside.

(A/N: This cameo was made at the request of redsopine. Enjoy!)

As CID was opening the second gateway, Pinkamena eyes locked on to something that she really didn’t expect to see. A red pegasus stallion wearing a brown cloak was walking out of an alley.

The stallion realized that he was being watched and looked in the direction of the one staring at him.

As Pinkamena looked closer at the Stallion, she noticed a few new features. His mane was dark green and blue and there was a scar over his left eye. His right eye quickly drew her attention as she noticed that the sclera was black and the iris was red, blue and green.

Turning her attention away from his features, she noticed that he had a can of beer in his right forehoof.

The two stared silently at each other for a minute before the stallion casually took a sip of his beer before a portal opened beside him and he walked inside before the portal closed.

Pinkamena stared at the now vacant area for another minute before CID floated over to the madmare. “Is something the matter?” She asked.

Pinkamena shook her head. “Huh? Oh, nothing important. Let’s get started.” The madmare walked into the orb’s gateway while putting the memory from a minute ago into the back of her mind.

Vinyl soon found herself at the base of the Magarac Statue. Looking around the base of the structure, she noticed a number of STAG soldiers patrolling the scaffolding. Just like the memory of the incident, Vinyl also noticed bombs put in place that were set to demolish the statue.

If Vinyl’s guess was correct, Shaundi was likely atop the scaffolding being held hostage by the STAG second in command, Kia. Unlike before though, neither Pinkamena or Moondancer were here to save her so she would have to save the Saint herself.

The DJ had an idea to do just that.

Pinkamena found herself at the edge of Ponyville. While everything seemed normal at first glance, there was one big difference.

The whole town was on fire.

Knowing that this was Treehugger’s simulation, the best place to check for her friend’s whereabouts would be Fluttershy’s cottage, given the past the two have had.

Vinyl used her Dubstep Gun to blast STAG troops off the scaffolding as she continued her ascent to the top. She also made sure to steal the high tech rifles from the soldiers for the sake of repurposing them for her plan.

As she went along, she reached each of the bombs on the statue and disarmed them before she reassembled the parts into makeshift speakers and remade the rifles into microphones, setting them up next to each other. She made sure to build one to wirelessly connect to the other speakers.

The DJ worked fast to set up her plan to save Shaundi and was able to alter all of the bombs in time.

She soon made it to the top of the scaffolding and saw a few STAG troops as well as Shaundi and Kia together with the soldier holding the Saint by the neck and pointing her rifle at the ramp to the top. Vinyl had to duck to avoid the shot.

With the situation as it was, it was time to execute her plan. She put on a pair of noise-cancelling earphones and pulled her microphone out, she placed it next to her mouth before she puckered her lips and blew a whistle into the device.

The speakers below picked up on the sound and played the whistling sound. The microphones near the speaker picked up on the sound from the speakers and sent the same signal back to the speakers, creating a feedback loop that caused the statue to shake and everyone without noise cancellers to clutch their ears in pain.

Seizing the opportunity, Vinyl picked up Kia, who let go of Shaundi to clutch her ears, and hurled her over the scaffolding. She repeated the process with the other STAG soldiers as well.

Before Vinyl could get to Shaundi however, a square of white light opened up beneath the Saint and she fell into it.

“Tut, tut, dear Vinyl, you didn’t think I would let her go so easily, did you?” Zinyak asked rhetorically. “We haven’t even gotten to the best part of her torment yet. Though I’d hurry if I were you. Especially since that little stunt of yours may have caused some...structural problems.”

With little time to spare and the scaffolding shaking violently, Vinyl raced down the structure. On the way down, she noticed more white rectangles opening up. She jumped over the openings and continued racing down the tower.

Unfortunately, one of the openings appeared directly below Vinyl and she fell into the white void.

Pinkamena raced through the town while avoiding the frantic townsponies who were either desperately trying to put out the flames or were running around screaming while on fire and setting other ponies on fire in their reckless racing.

Since the ponies were simulations, she had no compunction against killing a bunch of programs with the alien weapons that she picked up while killing Zin.

Pinkamena ignored the plight of the town and focused solely on her trek toward Fluttershy’s cottage. On the way, she encountered charred husks of ponies in the streets. In the distance, the madmare noticed that the entire orchard of Sweet Apple Acres was on fire.

As she neared the cottage, the fires started impeding her progress. Using her Knightmare with her strength, she created shockwaves that blew away the flames.

Pinkamena soon reached the cottage by a stream with a number of panicking animals around it. She casually walked over to the entrance across a small bridge.

Upon opening the door, Pinkamena was greeted by a white light.

When the white light faded, Pinkamena discovered that she was somewhere else. It appeared to be a strange looking grassland that she had never seen before. The grass was of a golden color and there were lone trees scattered throughout the area.

It was nighttime in her current location so it was hard to make out much of her surroundings. What she could see was a small fire in the distance. With nothing else to follow, she headed toward the distant light.

Once she was close enough, she discovered that it was a small village of straw huts in front of her. The village was oriented as a circle of huts with a stone altar in the center. Roaming the village were a number of zebras who were carrying strange materials. As she entered the village, she was met with a number of hostile stares from the zebras. Pinkamena shrugged off the stares and gazed at the altar.

The madmare’s eyes widened by what she saw. A crying Treehugger was in mourning over a couple of charred husks that were burned to the point where they were barely recognizable. Pinkamena looked closer at the bodies and saw traces of pink hair on the both of them.

“Do you see what the failure has done?” said one of the zebricans in an ominous tone. “This pretender sought to learn the ways of Zebrican Voodoo but when she chose her Loa, she was rejected and her friends paid the price for her audacity. The Loa have spoken, Zebrican Voodoo is for Zebras only. Your friend could never become one of us.”

As Pinkamena heard the Zebra’s story, she started to chuckle then giggle which turned to full blown laughter. The Zebra was confused by her display.

Once Pinkamena’s laughter died down, she put on her wicked smile. “So, this is Treehugger’s biggest fear. She is afraid of being rejected by the Loa. Everyone has their insecurities when they are about to take a huge step in their lives. I have no doubt that once Treehugger is ready, her Loa will embrace her and welcome her as her priestess.”

Treehugger heard the words of her leader and while she thought for a long time that she had killed her leader and Fluttershy, as shown by the charred corpses near her, seeing her leader ready to take on a village made her realize that she was being deceived. Upon her realization, the bodies faded away.

The stoner mare was not happy with her treatment. She walked up to Pinkamena with her flamethrower ready to turn the village and its residents to ash.

“You think this affront to our traditions will become a priestess? We will never allow it!” The Zebra turned to his fellow villagers. “Kill them both.”

Pinkamena knew things would turn out this way. With the Zebras ready to attack, the madmare decided to follow her companion’s example and pulled out some molotovs. The Zebras charged at them while some were throwing mixtures of their own. Treehugger unleashed her flames upon the villagers and their houses. Pinkamena splashed fiery liquor on each villager.

In mere minutes, the entire village was on fire. The two mares walked away from the blaze before Pinkamena told Kinzie to pull them out after warning the former prisoner of what was about to happen..

Vinyl landed inside a club of some sort. Kinzie was just as confused as Vinyl was.

While looking around, Vinyl heard a voice from below, “You’re not going anywhere, Shaundi.”

The DJ had a feeling that she needed to find a way downstairs quickly. She spotted an open door that had some stairs leading downward.

Once she reached the next floor down, she saw Shaundi being held hostage by some guy wearing a green shirt, tan baggy pants, flip flops and a wool cap colored red, green and yellow.

“Any idea who that guy is?” Kinzie asked.

“Looks like some guy who needs his flank kicked,” Vinyl responded.

The DJ mare found more stairs that led downward to the dance floor where Shaundi and the stranger were.

While the stranger was holding someone who looked like Shaundi, her appearance was a mystery to Vinyl. While the Shaundi she knew had her hair tied back, this one had her hair hanging in dreadlocks. Her clothes looked looser than Shaundi’s as well.

Given that the simulation had brought the DJ mare to this location, Vinyl still had to figure out how to resolve the matter without Shaundi getting hurt.

“Hey you, weirdo in the green shirt, who are you?”

The agitator became irritated that the mare didn’t know his name. For the sake of his pride, he introduced himself. “I am the triple platinum DJ Veteran Child I’m the best DJ in all of Stilwater. This bitch belongs to me so if you know what’s good for you, you’ll scram.”

“A DJ, huh?” Vinyl thought to herself. She knew what she needed to do now. It had been a while since she had to put a wannabe punk DJ in his place. Vinyl decided that it was time to throw down.

“In that case, why don’t we put our reputations on the line and battle it out like real DJs would, with our turntables.”

“You think I’m gonna accept that? This is just some ploy to get me to let Shaundi go.”

“Sounds to me like they would give a triple platinum title to anyone in this world if they gave it to a no talent hack like you. Where’s your pride as a DJ? Or are you just scared to go against Equestria’s greatest, DJ P0N-3?”

“That’s it! I won’t let some pony who thinks she can scratch mock my triple platinum status.” He let go of Shaundi and a turntable appeared in front of the DJ. He programmed his tracks and got ready to throw down. “Bring it!”

Vinyl smirked as she produced a golden turntable from her mane. Her tracks were already programmed and ready to go.

With that, the battle between the DJs began.

Veteran Child was showing his impressive skills with his scratch techniques and while Vinyl was mildly impressed, she had heard better from past ponies who tried to scratch with her.

Vinyl had decided that Veteran Child had enough fun with his table so now it was her turn. Veteran Child quickly noticed that the DJ mare was laying down some sick beats. He had never encountered a DJ who could scratch like he could.

Then again, he never had much competition outside of Stilwater.

Veteran Child was starting to feel the pressure as the beats that his competition was dishing out was quickly eclipsing his own.

With one burst of the bass, Veteran Child and his turntable was blown back and off the dance floor.

While Vinyl and Shaundi were celebrating the victory, Zinyak decided to interfere. “A most impressive performance. Though I think he deserves a second chance. In fact, I think he deserves a lot of chances.”

That was when a number of Veteran Childs appeared on the dance floor armed with pistols. Vinyl did her best to dodge the shots while Shaundi was firing back with her own pistol but the odds were now against them.

“Looks like you could use a spot of assistance, Vinyl,” said Matt Miller. “I’m not sure how it happened, but it appears that I can connect you to the Steelport simulation and give you some assistance.”

With that, what looked like a bolt of lightning struck Vinyl. Her appearance suddenly changed as she was now wearing a form-fitting bodysuit that covered her body from her neck to above her hooves. She was also wearing a black jacket over the suit with the collar extending past the back of her head with a neon blue glow of her cutie mark on the back. Her glasses were also sharper at the end.

Vinyl smirked as she thought about the pain she was about to deliver. “So, you wanna be a sore loser? Fine by me.”

With access to Super Sprint, Vinyl dashed from Veteran Child to Veteran Child, tagging them with electrically charged hooves and overloading their programs, deleting them. Using her telekinesis, empowered by the digital universe, she pulled the Veteran Childs into once place before she zapped them all with an Electric Blast that deleted them.

With the threat ended, Vinyl turned to Shaundi. “Are you really Shaundi?” she asked.

“Last I checked.”

That was when a hand came out of Shaundi’s chest and another Shaundi, one that Vinyl was more familiar with, struggled her way out of the other Shaundi.

The baggy-looking Shaundi stared at the other Shaundi in wonder. “Whoa, freaky.”

“So this is Zinyak’s idea of a sick joke? To make me see my old coked up self?” the present Shaundi asked.

“Whoa, you need to chill.”

“What I need is to get out of this place and away from you.”

“When did I become no fun?”

“When the Saints started whoring themselves to Ultor and I was forced to stop smoking dust from a broken bulb all day.”

“Is there still a reason why you can’t smoke one now?”

“Yeah, because I’ve been abducted by aliens for God knows how long.”

“Whoa, harsh.”

Present Shaundi had to admit that with or without getting high, she was still getting captured and used as a hostage. Though she decided that she would rather have her focus than be a baked, promiscuous girl like the visage before her.

Kinzie decided to have the conversation end, “As entertaining as this might be, how about I get you out of there. You can settle your differences later.”

With that, Vinyl and Shaundi were pulled out of the simulation.

Back on the ship, the crew was hard at work when Playa yelled from the room where the fridge was. "Which one of you has been raiding the fridge? There was a can of beer in here with my name on it and now it's gone."

Nobody fessed up to the crime and the mystery remained a mystery.

Author's Note

I like to imagine that Shaundi isn't as angry as she is in the canon because Johnny was never "killed" so her behavior would be a little different. Only that her change was more from corporate sponsorship.

Super Vinyl Scratch:
Superpower element: Electricity
Blast: Delivers an electrocuting pulse to an area on impact and stuns those affected.
Telekinesis: Object or person in her telekinetic grip discharges electricity around them.
Stomp: Discharges electricity around her to electrocute and stun surrounding enemies.
Buff(locked): Emits an electrical aura that passively zaps nearby enemies and discharged weapons carry an electrical charge.

My inspiration for Vinyl's DJ battle came from this video.